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AN EXTREMELY rare example of Ireland’s only gold coinage is up for auction on September 15th

It is one of only 11 surviving gold pistoles issued by the Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as an emergency currency during the Great Irish Rebellion of the mid-17th century.

All but two of these are in museums or on public display.

Seven are in the National Museum of Ireland, one is in the Ulster Museum and another is in the collection of the American Numismatic Society in New York.

The coins were used to pay the Royalist garrison of Dublin by Ormonde, who was Charles I’s representative in Ireland.

They were minted using foreign currency, bullion and even rings and chains which were melted down and converted into unofficial currency.

The coin is being sold along with the rest of a collection of Irish coins of the Great Rebellion 1642–1649.

This Irish gold coin is one of the great rarities of Irish coinage.

“It also recalls a turbulent time in Ireland's history when the authorities found themselves short of currency and had to resort to unorthodox methods to find a solution.”

The history of Ormonde Money…

The story of Ormonde Money began in the summer of 1646 when the Royalist garrison of Dublin was under pressure from the rebels of the Irish Catholic Confederation.

The Duke of Ormonde, who was Lieutenant-General of the King’s forces in Ireland, was short of money and feared that some of his troops might defect if they were not paid.

With silver plate having long since been taken in for conversion to coins, he issued a Royal Warrant from Dublin Castle in July 1646 ordering that gold was to be melted down and converted into ‘pledges’ to pay the troops.

Some of the gold melted down was from foreign currency, including 10,000 pistoles sent from France by Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.

Because of this the pledges came to be known as pistoles or double-pistoles, depending on their size.

Demand for this currency persisted and in February 1647 Ormonde issued another Warrant calling in rings, chains and other pieces of gold for coining.